Please ignore my posting of 10 minutes earlier - it may be I who need to check my copy. Apologies

Raoul, London,

If houses are cheaper, then people will have more money to spend in the economy anyway and there will be no need to pay it off with interest over 25 years.

Surely negative equity is when a house is worth less than is borrowed against it? Not when people owe more than they paid?

chris, Dubai,

£1.5 trillion sounds like a more realistic figure...

£1.5 billion is clearly incorrect.

Jason, Warwick,

George said "The 'Insiders' left the market last year exactly because they had the information just alittle earlier! "

Anyone who didn't have their head stuck firmly in the sand could have found all the information they needed on the internet. Most were blinded by greed.

Tony Marshall, Fareham,

I rent a house (good location, nice garden, 7 bdrms) and my rent covers 1/4 of what the interest payments would be on a mortgage to buy it. If I bought the place, I'd be paying 4 times as much each month in order to speculate on the direction of house prices. You can't deny that this is a bubble.

RichB, Cookham Dean, Berks

Gordans miracle economy was built on rising house prices and equity withdrawl not on prudent policies. Now the bubble has burst the economy is sharply following house prices down the pan.

david barker, eastbourne,

The operative word is "Homeowners" " withdrew £57 billion in equity from their homes in 2004"

susy, kent, UK

Andrew said "It is simple, property prices double almost every 10 years and have done for the last century and will do so again in the next 10 yrs end of !!!"

So as they have trebled in the last 10 years, they must be overpriced by at least a third of current prices.. Which if course they are.

Tony Marshall, Fareham,

So why did we need X thousand extra homes every year a few months ago and now it would seem we no longer need them - doesn't make sense - or are we just marking time, and the good times will return with money and houses becoming available again just before the next election.

Marty, London,

This is a classic bubble. Those who were involved in dot com know this stuff. The words are even the same. The recriminations against the doom sayers as though its their fault. We were idiots. Leverage works both ways. Its great when the market is rising but when it falls you need to get out.

Ashley, Luton,

Bob "They withdrew £57 billion " that is all home owners not just btl`rs

Geoff, Birmingham, UK

william Morris, London. Were you writing to complain when the newspapers were talking the market up? The sooner average property prices fall to long term sustainable levels - 3x income, so about half current levels - the better. If the newspapers can speed this along, all the to the good.

Clint, Brighton, UK

I think the £1.5 billion might be what buy-to-letters have actually put in in terms of cash deposits. The banks have effectively put in the rest through mortgages. This (and hence the £54 billion that has already been withdrawn) will be paid back by the said buy-to-letters.

David, London, UK

A rational investment decision isn't based on a gamble on capital growth alone. BTL investors will soon realise this. There is no easy way to make money and, about time, people are about to realise that a property is a home and not solely an investment. A return to the norm is long overdue.

Nick, London, UK

"Buy-to-let landlords put £1.5 billion into property in the past decade alone."
This may well be correct, but why is the effect of the black market, laundered, or dirty money which has also been ploughed into the UK property market always overlooked / conveniently ignored?

Allan, Inverness,

Apart from the figures, which I can't verify, the article seemed to prove the point of the title.

Derek, Camberley,

William,
Knowledge is power.
And I think it quite right that in this 'information world' we all have a right to know what's going on and not to be hood-winked by the vested interests. The 'Insiders' left the market last year exactly because they had the information just alittle earlier!

george, aylesbury,

Contrary to what has been said here, a ten per cent rise in house prices only produces a 0.4 % increase in general spending. Figures from economist John Muellbauer ,Nuffield College, Oxford. Anyway it is a circuitous way to increase spending.Why not just give people higher wages ?

DBC Reed, Northampton, UK

Andrea, you need to understand that you have things around the wrong way, the high oil prices are being caused by inflation not the other way around. Inflation is caused by the creation of money by our central bankers, cutting interest rates will just increase the creation of money and inflation.

Steve, Edgware, UK

Just as the house price boom helped fuel consumer spending,the fall will have the opposite effect.A recession next year seems almost a 100% certainty.

stephen hulton, eure, france

Once again too much speculation by journalists. Why dont we see what actually does happen rather than scaring people and affecting the value of investments some people have had to work so hard to acquire.

william Morris, London,

How about cutting interest rates? Yeah yeah inflation I know, but inflation is going up anyway mostly due to the price of oil.
Uk has interest rates much higher than the rest of europe and we are over reliant on the housing market.

andrea ceccanti, london,

It seems to me that all the doom merchants are people who never had any inclination, drive or desire to look at property as an investment for the future.
It is simple, property prices double almost every 10 years and have done for the last century and will do so again in the next 10 yrs end of !!!

Andrew, Manchester, uk

"Get on the property ladder" - this phrase, beloved of property programs on TV now has a hollow ring to it. Or perhaps it is the sudden realisation that a ladder is for going down as well as up. Cost out the price of building, add the cost of land and the figure is still far less than values now.

David Nammory, Liverpool.,

£1.5 billion equates to only about 10000 homes so it must be much higher than that.

D, Surrey, UK

This housing market decline is going to be the worst we have ever seen due to the fact of millions of people using their houses as ATM's, to add to that the UK consumer has 10's of billions of £'s in additional debt, credit cards etc. That is why we are going to see a depression in this country.

Steve, Edgware, UK

People just need to stop thinking about a house as something that makes money. They may generate some speculative revenue but can't be taken for granted and, most importantly, that can't be the function of housing in an economy.
The housing markey exists to provide shelter, not speculative revenues.

Rui, Lisbon, Portugal

The article quotes

Buy-to-let landlords put £1.5 billion into property in the past decade alone.

They withdrew £57 billion in equity from their homes in 2004 alone.

Something wrong with the figures here

bob jones, Ipswich,

"Buy-to-let landlords put £1.5 billion into property in the past decade alone."
I'm no expert, but I think the figure must be a hell of a lot higher, unless you're sticking with the old British definition of billion.

Your definition of negative equity is just bizarre.

Neil McF, Southampton, England